Because we want you to know the people behind Procraft… to put a face on our brand, as it were… we’re continuing our series of interviews with some of our employees. We recently sat down with Procraft Project Coordinator, Trey Bonvillain, to get his thoughts on Procraft, the AV industry, and what he likes best about his role.
As Project Coordinator for Procraft, Bonvillain serves as a single point of contact for everyone involved on a project including the client, Procraft personnel, and any contractors involved. He coordinates the logistics of the project, manages client expectations, and helps to ensure that the project runs smoothly from design to integration to the final use of the system by the client. Although, not on site 100% of the time during any given project, Bonvillain says that he prefers to be on site at least 50% of the time so that he can better keep his finger on the pulse of the project and facilitate any needed adjustments. For eight years, prior to joining Procraft, Bonvillain ran a small business that required people management, payroll and finance expertise, and most importantly in terms of his current role, logistics and vendor management. That experience has played a major role in the success of the projects that he has overseen for Procraft.
When asked what he likes most about working for Procraft, Bonvillain offered that he enjoys seeing all the multiple pieces of projects come together and the blend of technology and human experience occurring right before his eyes. He says that the contrast between that experience and what he saw when he was involved in information security is vivid. In information security, he says that although the work is important, you never got to see it “change the room.” That is, he sold software licenses and he knew there were people doing the programming and writing code, but he never really got to see anything physically happen. According to Bonvillain, “There wasn't a human interaction with what you were doing. It seemed to lack substance in a way that what we do, doesn't. We get to see the substantive and often exciting results of our work.” A testament to those results and the excitement they evoked, was poignantly recorded on video recently at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where Procraft has been involved in the revamping of the Huskers’ locker room and training center. The new facility includes a 32,000-square-foot weight room, a locker room three times the size of the previous one, administrative offices, and multiple rooms with mounted screens to watch film or scout opponents. The excitement of the players as they entered the facility on “first day in” is palpable in the Instagram posted by @huskerfootball that day! Bonvillain says that the moment when those players walked into the facility and got to see it all for the very first time was one of his favorite moments at Procraft so far. He called it “a little victory moment,” that made all of the work worth it.
Bonvillain says that he is looking forward to continuing work on the UN-L project which is slated to continue through 2024. For him, the project is illustrative of what makes working at Procraft so fulfilling: the people and the culture that are the epitome of a “shoulder-to-shoulder” spirit when it comes to getting a job done and done well.
When he’s not at work Bonvillain, who lives in Colorado, enjoys golf, skiing and snowboarding, chess, and playing the piano. He is also an avid reader and has been known to quote from memory books and movies that he particularly enjoys. For those who might be interested in pursuing a career in AV integration, he has this to offer: “I find it very fulfilling. It’s a job that is tactile but also requires critical thinking skills, so if you have even a little bit of a technical mind and a desire to work creating systems that involve technology, storytelling, and electronics, you should go for it. Like anything else, there is some aptitude required, but it's such an emerging field that isn’t going to go away, it’s going to continue to develop in ways that we’re only now beginning to understand, now is the ideal time to get your foot in the door.”
Looking to gain more insight into the people who help Procraft enable powerful human connections with audiovisual technology? Check out our employee spotlights on Sarah Reed and Jason Schwartzel.